Free Six Moon Summer by SM Reine

important than ever to be on her best behavior.
     
    At the beginning of the summer, Rylie would have chopped off her foot to be sent home. Now, over a month later, it was the last thing she wanted. The thought of changing into a werewolf at her dad’s house made her sick. Going home wasn’t an option. Not anymore.
     
    There was a big campfire after dinner that weekend at the amphitheater. The fire pit in the middle of Silver Brook was filled with burning logs, and enough extra fuel was added to make the flames leap higher than the tallest benches. It was too hot to sit in the bottom row. Rylie took her seat in the shadows at the back to wait for announcements.
     
    Cassidy sat beside her.
     
    “How are you doing?” she asked, offering Rylie a chocolate bar from the s’mores ingredients stash by the fire.
     
    Rylie reached out to take it, but her fingers were trembling violently. Instead, she sat on her hands. “I’m fine.”
     
    “You sure?”
     
    “Yeah. Why?”
     
    “You’ve been acting weird,” Cassidy said. “That’s my job.” She laughed, and Rylie figured she was supposed to laugh too. She mimicked the sound. It came out sounding forced and awkward.
     
    “I guess I’m homesick,” she lied.
     
    “Getting any mail from your folks?”
     
    “Sometimes.” Rylie hadn’t gotten anything since her mom sent her new clothing, but that was probably because they were too busy with divorce proceedings to write.
     
    “I’m not.” Cassidy unwrapped the chocolate bar and snapped a piece off in her mouth, chewing it on one side so her cheek bulged. “They hate me.”
     
    Rylie finally took a square of chocolate and let it dissolve on her tongue, watching the campfire. She couldn’t think of anything nice to say to Cassidy about her family, so instead, she asked, “What about those drawings you wanted to show me before?”
     
    Cassidy pushed up her sleeve to bare her wrist. The old ink was fading, but fresh line art ran from the inside of her elbow to the palm of her hand. A shaggy wolf bared his teeth as though chewing on the veins beneath the skin.
     
    Rylie stared at it for too long. It almost looked alive. “That’s a really good illustration,” she said. Her voice was dead.
     
    The director finally stepped in front of the fire to speak. Grateful for the distraction, Rylie pretended to be absorbed in the speech and ignored Cassidy. She didn’t hear a single word.
     
    Instead, she stared up at the sky.
     
    The moon was almost full.
     

 

Nine
     

Teeth and Claws
     
    Rylie woke up on the morning of the full moon with a note stuck to her loft window. Seth’s sharp handwriting was on the outside: Rylie . Her heart sped a little. Seth had been there last night while she slept. The thought made her blush.
     
    She pulled it from the window pane and unfolded it.
     
    Meet me on the trail at the big pile of rocks after curfew. Eat a lot of protein at dinner tonight. You’ll need your strength.
     
    Rylie chewed her bottom lip as she considered his instructions.
After curfew.
It wouldn’t be a problem, as far as the transformation went—The Legends of Gray Mountain indicated that the changes usually began around midnight in the early moons. But sneaking out of the cabin was getting riskier and riskier.
     
    Of course, she couldn’t change within the cabin, either. Rylie read the note one more time, then tucked it in the back of her journal.
     
    On impulse, she tore a blank page out of the back and scribbled her own note.
I’ll be there by ten
. She stuck it in the window. The note was missing by the time she returned from lunch.
     
    She felt normal during the day. Normal enough that she almost doubted any of it was real. It would be easier to think it was all fantasy—werewolves weren’t real, she couldn’t become an animal, and there was no reason to fear the changing moods of the moon. But Rylie could deny her gold-flecked eyes or the near invisible scar on her chest no more